


The Vampire at the Edge of the woods

by RainbowUnderpants



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Barduil - Freeform, Barduil Secret Santa, Barduil Vampire!AU, M/M, Vampire!Bard, protective!Thranduil, sharalock-holmes, vampire, vampire!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 05:11:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9369518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowUnderpants/pseuds/RainbowUnderpants
Summary: Merry Christmas Sharalock-Holmes. I'm your Secret Santa stand-in and I come bearing a gift for you.Barduil Secret Santa - Vampire!Bard with a side of protective Thranduil





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sharalock-holmes](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=sharalock-holmes).



Bard was terrified, thought Thranduil, and he had every right to be. 

The vampire appeared from nowhere grabbing Bard by the arm with it's bony fingers taking both fabric and flesh in the same swift motion. They were every bit the last visages of the people they once were, surfacing like a memory from around the bend. Raising like ghosts better forgotten from their graves.  
He'd pulled back and let loose an arrow into one of the vampires eyes before Thranduil had a chance to turn from the tiny blue mushrooms whose virtues he'd been absorbed in describing to Bard only a second ago. A second swipe and his bow was broken and he was backing away quickly, holding his arm, terror in his eyes.   
Thranduil had his sword draw now, and managed one good slice to the side of the vampire before the it was on top of him, forcing him backwards into the bush and Bard back with him. 

 

The vampire slain, decapitated and then stabbed in the heart for good measure. Thranduil would have it burned and the ashes scattered after. Thranduil turned his attention now to his husband, trying to remain calm. Now that the fight was over it was difficult. He hadn't expected a vampire. Spiders and Orcs sure. They hadn't gone on this walk unarmed because in his woods there didn't lurk all sorts of monstrosities. Bard had even joked about a hunt, and the practicality of eating giant spiders. But vampires, vampires he hadn't encountered in any living mortals memory. He'd never even mentioned them to Bard. If he'd only ever heard legends of them, he preferred that remain the case. Bard had accepted the dangers of his forest home, and hadn't held it against him, but he didn't need to burden him with the knowledge of creatures Thranduil never thought even he in his long life would ever have to face again.   
Now his woods had attracted a vampire. again. And they would likely be attracting more soon enough. 

"You're fine," Thranduil told him, trying unsuccessfully not to show the dread he felt raising in his heart. No more walks with Bard in the woods. His woods. Not now that those things were back. 

"There's a poultice for that" Thranduil assured, inspecting Bard arm "It's not that deep either, you'll be fine."  
Bard wasn't looking at him, instead he jerked his chin at the crumpled heap that had dealt that damage to him.

"I've not seen another in a while."

"A vampire? You've seen vampires?" Thranduil asked quickly "Where? When? By the Lake?"

"What?" Bard looked back at him in surprised, blinking. Shock maybe? Thought Thranduil, he should hurry him back to the castle. 

"Oh vampires. Yes. Not here though. Not recently "Bard said evenly, assuringly, "Not for an age."

Thranduil nodded. Of course. While he hadn't expected Bard to even know that vampires were real, but he was pleased that he would have to explain what they had just encountered to him, right after it had harmed him so. 

 

It was only later after Bard had gone to sleep, mortals always sleeping half their lives away, arm wrapped up that he thought about how Bard wasn't afraid of the vampire after it was surely dispatched. He wasn't afraid that it had it had got its claws into him, the most common ways that people became Vampires themselves. Usually men, occasionally Dwarves and rarely Elves. They all think they luckily managed to survive being torn to pieces, the most common result of a vampire attack on unsuspecting untrained people, only to find that some of the vampire own blood had tainted their wounds, corrupting them from within. A corruption that causes them to forget themselves and become the blood-thirsty animals all vampires become.   
A plague upon the land and her people coming from what was once their very own neighbours. 

Bard hadn't been afraid of that all, hadn't even voiced that concern. He allowed him to take him back home and have the healers give him the medicine he would need to avoid corruption should some of their attacks blood had mixed with him, all while voicing questions about the history of vampires in his woodland kingdom. If they were common? When was the last time anyone had seen one? Would Thranduil be able to comb the woods to flesh out any others that might be there?

Thranduil indulged him, thinking it was only him trying to protect him. Not voicing the concern that was on both their minds. But maybe it was only on his.  
The thought that Bard was afraid that he could become a vampire like that which had attacked him, didn't seem to trouble Bard at all, but he had been terrified when the vampire had first appeared. Thranduil was sure of it, sure it wasn't only for the surprise of it.   
He had been scared of that vampire but he hadn't been afraid of becoming a vampire. Hadn't even been afraid that Thranduil himself could have been corrupted, and Bard had been concerned to find that he enjoyed walking barefoot sometimes in the woods. 

Thranduil resolved to ask him about it later, in the morning or the next day perhaps but then dismissed the thought. It was silly anyway. Bard was alright, and it didn't particularly matter why he was more afraid of the appearance of the vampire then the idea he'd come so close to becoming. 

He was worrying over nothing.


End file.
